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In the last 20 years, the consumption of prescription stimulants increased from 5 million to 45 million.

Prescription drug abuse is the nation’s fastest growing drug problem. More people in the U.S. died last year of drug overdoses than from car accidents, making prescription drug abuse the third leading cause of accidental death. In the U.S., one person dies every 19 minutes from a drug overdose, and overdoses involving prescription painkillers now kill more Americans than those involving heroin and cocaine combined. This epidemic has been particularly widespread on college campuses. Between 1993 and 2005, the proportion of college students using prescription drugs went up dramatically: use of opioids such as Vicodin, Oxycontin, and Percocet increased by 343 percent, and use of stimulants like Ritalin or Adderall increased by 93 percent.

President Bill Clinton visits Hidden Harvest, a Health Matters Initiative pledge maker. Hidden Harvest delivers rescued produce to local pantries and those who need it in the Coachella Valley.

Health-based Codeathon in New York City

Participants in the first health-based codeathon, a partnership between the Clinton Foundation, Tumblr, Ace Hotel and Jawbone work in the Ace Hotel lobby in New York to develop innovative technologies to help Americans sleep better.

CHMI Codeathon Participants Take Stretch Break

Participants in the health-based codeathon take a stretch break. Building upon the powerful intersection of technology and health, the codeathon aims to spur innovation in the health and technology space and set a baseline standard for what a healthy codeathon environment should entail.

Health Matters Initiative

MORE ABOUT opioid and PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE REDUCTION

CHMI seeks to cut prescription drug abuse deaths in half over the next five years – saving approximately 10,000 lives – through strategic partnerships that raise consumer and public awareness, advance business practice change, and mobilize communities.

Scaling Access to Naloxone

CHMI has brokered discounted pricing agreements with manufacturers of naloxone, an anti-opioid reversal agent, to provide a predictably affordable supply of naloxone to community groups, public safety organizations, and schools, creating a window of opportunity for the naloxone distribution field to scale over the next five years. CHMI has also partnered with Adapt Pharma, the American School Nurses Association, and a number of other partners to make FDA-approved naloxone NARCAN nasal spray available to every high school and college in the US, placing the potentially life-saving medicine in the hands of those who can intervene quickly during an overdose emergency. The spray is simple enough for people with no medical training to administer, and can be critical in saving the life of someone who has overdosed.

Johns Hopkins Working Group

In 2014, CHMI engaged Johns Hopkins University as a key research and content partner and, together, the Clinton Foundation and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH) hosted a working meeting and public forum with the goal of taking a public health approach to the prescription drug misuse and abuse epidemic and using evidence to inform policy and practical action. Through this partnership and a series of multiple joint Town Halls, CHMI and JHSPH have steered a working group of stakeholders and decision makers to develop a consensus statement and guiding principles around the epidemic and to release a report outlining key recommendations needed to combat the epidemic across seven policy areas.

Building Communities of Support

In addition to the immediate and crucial impact of reducing deaths, CHMI aims to integrate naloxone access and implementation into a comprehensive prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery model that is scalable and replicable across a diverse range of communities and populations. Currently, CHMI is working with partners and stakeholders from the opioid misuse and abuse prevention space to identify a new generation of communities primed not only for increased naloxone access, but a community-based model which incorporates a broad range of prevention and treatment goals.

About The Clinton Health Matters Initiative

The Clinton Health Matters Initiative (CHMI) works to improve the health and well-being of all people by activating individuals, communities, and organizations to make meaningful contributions to the health of others.